Priestly protester is back in town

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The Rev. Louis Vitale being led away after a peace protest arrest in 2003.

The Rev. Louie Vitale, the perpetual peace protester from the Bay Area, made his first major appearance in San Francisco on Sunday since being released from prison this summer.

The 77-year-old Vitale, more commonly known as Father Louie, got out of Lompoc Federal Correctional Complex on July 23 after serving six months for trespassing for walking onto Fort Benning in Georgia to protest its military personnel training.

He’s already been arrested since leaving prison — in August, for trespassing during a peace protest at Vandenberg Air Force Base to speak out against missile tests in the Pacific — and cheerily says he intends to continue his anti-war activities. This may bring him more prison time after he goes to trial in federal court in Santa Barbara in November for the latest activity.

This was Vitale’s fourth stretch in a federal crossbars hotel for peace protesting, and he said it went pretty much as the others did — not so badly, considering he always winds up being a de facto spiritual counselor to the other hard-timers on the cell block.

It’s not his favorite way to spend his time, the priest is quick to point out. But Vitale said he sees no choice.

“I never want to break the law, but sometimes you have to go into the burning building whether there is a sign saying ‘approved’ or not,” Vitale said. “And when you see people suffering as they are in the war right now, or when missiles are being shot into the Pacific islands, it seems like the building is burning.”